'G' Men

The film that put Cagney on the right side of the law after pressure groups (and Hoover's FBI) had castigated Hollywood's glorification of the gangster hero. In fact, it's hard to distinguish Cagney's Brick Davis - a punk from the wrong side of the tracks who becomes a lawyer, turning federal agent to take on the mob who killed his buddy - from his earlier incarnations, since he's still violent, trigger-happy and motivated by personal impulses rather than a sense of legal justice. That said, however, it's a typical Warners thriller: fast, gutsy, as simplistic and powerful as a tabloid headline.